Out of date fire blanket.

Once it has passed its sell by date, the flavour will have seriously deteriorated. I find them too dry & chewy after a couple of months.

You can however still use them in stews or casseroles & if available a pressure cooker will ensure they are still really tender.
 
It's all very well replacing an old fire blanket but do bear in mind the need to also replace the sleeve that contains it. Modern metric blankets will be a loose fit in an old imperial sleeve.

But while we are on the subject can anybody tell me where I can get a left handed fire blanket?
 
Sandyman said:
The only one's out of date are the PC idiots who come out with such rubbish.
Total nonsense.
Click to expand...

Have to agree re that fire blanket overkill hse leaflet-backside covering big time.

However, our youngest was in asbestos removal testing for a while, (after his research labs blew up!)- all the fuss and screening removing the stuff, running his pumps and filters for 3 hours a time, issuing certificates, then when it got to the authorised disposal landfill site in darkest Sussex, the JCB drivers were shovelling and driving around over it (blue and brown blowing in the wind)in standard cabs, wearing no NODDY suits or masks.

He decided to get out of that site and the whole game asap.

Must be a Sussex thing, as the recycling depot at Crowborough when I went down last year with 3 x triple heavy gauge double poly wrapped intact old garden shed roof corrugated sheets(as instructed by said son) were more concerned that my neighbour's work pick up had a commercial logo on it, than that their asbestos skip had unwrapped broken/frayed asbestos material just chucked in it, and no airlocks/seals, so loose fibres were blowing round about all round the entrance/ exit roads from the depot.

As I said to the depot jobsworth when she jibbed at Johns logo adorned pickup- "the sheets are too long for my car-how else am I suppose to bring them 15-20 miles- break or saw them up. Or should I fly tip them somewhere up on the Forest perhaps???"

When I saw the state of the "secure asbestos skip", I realised that the important thing was to try and get a commercial tipping licence fee out of me(she didn't), not deal with the hazardous waste properly!

I now know why builders I know bury any asbestos found in the next lot of footings as intact as possible and keep it wet- at least the fibres are locked away for another 60-70 years.
 
I now know that the fireblanket in question was bought new from a chandlers in April this year so no question of it being asbestos or of having deteriorated I'd have thought. Looking at what's on sale from various places I find that typically the fireblankets now on offer do not need replacing unless used ( and even then some of them can be wiped clean and reused). They seem to have fabric guarantees from 5 years to 10 years. Why the RNLI inspector condemned a 7 month old blanket as "out of date" remains a mystery for the time being.

A fire extinguisher bought at the same time was also apparently condemned as out of date. I have no further details but it is rather surprising as many are stated to have a life expectancy of 10 years. The one I bought for home use from Lidl early this year has no expiry date on it and as far as I am concerned will remain fit to use for as long as the pressure gauge is in the green sector.
 
out of date under guarantee?

VicS,
Thats amazing, perhaps the RNLI Seachecker had to find something wrong/personality clash with the owner, and clutched at a straw?

Did the owner wave the receipt at him?

He risks bringing the RNLI scheme into disrepute, unless perhaps the chandler sold the owner some old stock from the back of the shop?
 
Quote VicS: "A fire extinguisher bought at the same time was also apparently condemned as out of date. I have no further details but it is rather surprising as many are stated to have a life expectancy of 10 years. The one I bought for home use from Lidl early this year has no expiry date on it and as far as I am concerned will remain fit to use for as long as the pressure gauge is in the green sector. "

You're lucky with yours then Vic, I've had two fire extinguisher's bought from Lidl that, over a period of a year, have lost pressure, and I've had to take back to them for refund. I found that dissapointing as most of their kit is both cheap and serviceable.

The old Thames Conservancy "Launch Digest" (showing my age here) used to reccomend shaking fire extinguishers every now and then as the powder was liable to settle otherwise and not be ejected properly, and that was in the days when they had no gauges. These days fire extinguishers seem to be pressurised containers which are pressurised via the hose end - anyone know by how much and if it is just CO2 or air? I've got a compressor and................!!

As to fire-blankets, to me it makes considerable sense to remove a fire blanket from its sleeve periodically just to make sure it isn't full of holes and can actually work. My neighbour, who had one in his grp cruiser, took it out and it fell apart.

When I remember, I'm going to check mine, not that we ever use it.

SWMBO managed to have a chip pan fire in the galley earlier in the year (distracted by gossipping with a girlfriend at the time) and we just turned off the heat and slapped a lid on it followed by a wet towel. No-one at the time even thought to use the fire blanket alongside the cooker . Afterwards we were more concerned with sooty scorch marks on the head lining!
 
Just a couple of thoughts.

1) Fire blankets are now woven glass fibre. I can see no reason for them being date stamped if unused. They do not have a great deal of strength however and if opened and removed from the container too often the weave can begin to break up. I know this as for a time when i was learning my trade I used one to prevent smoke matches ( fume spillage testing on gas fires) from dropping onto expensive carpets. The fire blanket did not last long before fragmenting, though I accept it was not being used for its intended purpose.

2) I used a fire extinguisher in anger last week on a wheely bin fire in Peterborough (I work in all the best parts of town). It only delayed the fire briefly and I rang 999 and Fire Fighter Sam came very promptly and put it out in a jiffy. On that showing, just having one fire extinguisher is very thin insurance indeed...basically it was F.All use.

I'd seek clarification on the fire blanket date as the info out there is certainyl contradictory.

Tim
 
Just checked mine and it states 100% glass fibre. It is very old though. Had it for more years than I can remember.

Can't find a date on it.

Will take it out carefully and check for signs of weakness as previous poster correctly states, glass fibre at the folds = weakness.
 
Cliveshep said:
The old Thames Conservancy "Launch Digest" (showing my age here) used to reccomend shaking fire extinguishers every now and then as the powder was liable to settle otherwise and not be ejected properly, and that was in the days when they had no gauges. These days fire extinguishers seem to be pressurised containers which are pressurised via the hose end - anyone know by how much and if it is just CO2 or air? I've got a compressor and................!!
Click to expand...

We were taught to always mount the extinguisher horizontally and let the boat movement swill the contents. As to the compressor - I don't think spraying compressed air at a fire will help the situation...!
 
"SWMBO managed to have a chip pan fire in the galley earlier in the year (distracted by gossipping with a girlfriend at the time) and we just turned off the heat and slapped a lid on it followed by a wet towel. No-one at the time even thought to use the fire blanket alongside the cooker . Afterwards we were more concerned with sooty scorch marks on the head lining!"

Lots of people put blankets "near to" cookers and the like... seems the best place??? it is untill the cooker catches fire, then you have to approach the thing with flames to get the thing that puts them out.... hmmmm.

If you look where most extinguishers, of all types, are placed... it's usually on the way out!

It's not just the kit, it's having the knowledge AND experience to use them safely... and also know when not to. as for the "tea towell" fire blanket... don't. It'll dry out, catch fire, and you won't put it out with another tea towel, just makes things worse.
 
May I add a further word of warning about chip pan fires. We had one shortly after we were married & wanted to use a damp towel over it. But the towels were all new wedding presents, so I grabbed a wet cloth that I thought would do.

It was too small & fell into the hot fat. The water immediately turned to steam & fed the fire. There was a 12" column of flames up to the ceiling where it spread into a 5' diameter fireball that set fire to the polystyrene ceiling tiles, which in turn dripped molten & burning plastic on me as I picked the biggest towel I could, wet it & put the whole sorry mess out. By now there was severe fire damage to the kitchen, smoke damage to most of the house & I had several small burns in my clothing & skin from molten plastic & SWMBO had called fire brigade.

I bought an asbestos blanket when redecorating & now cook chips in the oven or shallow fry if using "real spuds". A damp towel only works if it is big enough, if it is too small, it will make matters far worse. Oh, & NEVER try to carry the burning pan out - it will be too hot & you will drop it. The result doesn't bear thinking about but it is a common cause of severe burning & death.
 
Out of date

Out of date fire blanket - if not asbestos and not used and not falling apart, surely Ok to keep.

Mind you the advice comes from an organisation that scraps lifejackets once they have been worn on 25 "shouts". Maybe we should all renew lifejackets after 25 wearings!

[please wait whilst I invest in lifejacket manufacturing shares]

Now wearing a helmet to avoid the flak.
 
VicS said:
A fire extinguisher bought at the same time was also apparently condemned as out of date. I have no further details but it is rather surprising as many are stated to have a life expectancy of 10 years. The one I bought for home use from Lidl early this year has no expiry date on it and as far as I am concerned will remain fit to use for as long as the pressure gauge is in the green sector.
Click to expand...

I asked the fire officer issuing our fire safety certificate if he could answer your question and his answer was:

All extinguishers have a recommended ten year life from the date of sale due to them being pressure vessels. It is not the contents of the extinguisher but the canister itself which has the ten year life, at which point it should be checked by a competent person and if the canister is OK it can be put back into use. To check the canister correctly the contents need to be removed as it is checked using hydraulic not pneumatic pressure. The cost of the check and then refilling the contents make the whole thing cost prohibitive.

He did point out that a fire extinguisher on a boat was nothing more than a pressure vessel made of mild steel in a salty environment and therefore suggested going to Homebase and buying a new 1kg extinguisher for £13.00 every five years to be on the safe side.

He did go on to say that statistically you are more likely to need an extinguisher in your car than in your boat and yet while almost everyone has at least one onboard their boat, very few private vehicles carry one on the road, his suggestion, have a five year cycle, first five years on the boat, second five years in the car then either donate or dispose of them.

Food for thought?
 
Mudisox said:
Mind you the advice comes from an organisation that scraps lifejackets once they have been worn on 25 "shouts". Maybe we should all renew lifejackets after 25 wearings!

[please wait whilst I invest in lifejacket manufacturing shares]
Click to expand...

Saw that, so I just had a chat with Steve, the Deputy Coxswain of the Exmouth lifeboat.

They service the jackets every 6 months, inflating them and leaving to check for leaks. They then replace the gas cylinder. They replace LJs that fail to pass servicing checks. They replace LJs that have been damaged during a shout. They don't replace LJs just because they have been worn on a fixed number of shouts. Quote "that wouldn't be very cost-effective, would it?"

Who is the more reliable information source? Mudisox or Steve?
 
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